Killer of 2 women denied parole

May 3, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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1986 article published in The Orange County Register shows a photo shows Elizabeth Schafer, known as the Bee Lady of Anaheim. Schafer and here daughter were killed in a 1983 home-invasion robbery in Anaheim. FILE: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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1986 article published in The Orange County Register shows a photo shows Elizabeth Schafer, known as the Bee Lady of Anaheim. Schafer and here daughter were killed in a 1983 home-invasion robbery in Anaheim. FILE: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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1986 article published in The Orange County Register shows Edward Barrios, now 51, who is serving two concurrent sentences of 25 years to life for a 1983 home-invasion robbery that resulted in deaths of mother and daughter in Anaheim. FILE: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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1986 article published in The Orange County Register shows Edward Barrios, then 25, as he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the deaths of Elizabeth Schafer and here daughter, Alice. Pictured bottom right is Robert Schafer. FILE: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1986 article published in The Orange County Register shows a photo shows Elizabeth Schafer, known as the Bee Lady of Anaheim. Schafer and here daughter were killed in a 1983 home-invasion robbery in Anaheim. FILE: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – An inmate who orchestrated a 1983 home-invasion robbery in Anaheim, leaving an elderly woman and her daughter to die slow deaths by suffocation after they were bound and gagged in a crime that netted $75, was denied release from prison at a parole hearing Thursday.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office opposed the release of Edward Barrios, 51, who is serving two concurrent sentences of 25 years to life, at a hearing before the Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, at Solano State Prison in Vacaville.

Barrios was sentenced in 1986 after he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of robbery and one count of residential burglary --- felonies that claimed the lives of Elizabeth Schafer, 96, and Alice Schafer, 69.

Elizabeth Schafer was known as the "Bee Lady of Anaheim" for keeping hives and selling honey and avocadoes out of a roadside stand in front of her house in the 1500 block of West Anaheim. Some neighbors disapproved, and Schafer fought with city officials to keep her honey business going.

Deputy District Attorney Israel Claustro appeared at Thursday's hearing to oppose Barrios' parole, citing a lack of insight on the part of Barrios for the crimes he committed, his refusal to undergo vocational training, and the D.A.'s belief that he still represents a threat to public safety.

In a news release, the D.A. said Barrios remains a threat because he has "not learned to identify or recognize early warning signs to his historical mood instability or substance use problems outside a structured environment."

Since his last 2009 parole hearing, Barrios has incurred two prison rules violations for destroying state property and being out of bounds, in addition to the seven prison rules violations already on his record, prosecutors said.

"This shows the inmate cannot follow rules, even in a structured environment," the D.A. said in a news release.

The granddaughter and niece of the victims submitted a letter to the Board to oppose Barrios' parole.

In her letter, she wrote, "All too often, people act without thinking and are later sorry for their actions. Well, no matter how sorry Barrios may be, no amount of sorrow will ever bring back my dear grandmother or aunt, nor will it make up for all the ways in which all of our lives were forever changed by his actions that day."

Both of Elizabeth Schafer's sons as well as other Schafer family members have been active in opposing Barrios' parole by writing letters in the past, according to the D.A.'s office.

Patty Garcia, a niece of Barrios, said that her family was disappointed with the outcome of the parole hearing.

"He was a young man who got lost within himself and made a mistake that cost him his life," Garcia wrote in an email. "He is a good man. I have been very involved in my uncle's life, gong to visit him, writing letters and talking on the phone.

"I pray every day for his release and am leaving it up to God to determine his faith. In my eyes and my family, he is our uncle and our brother, and we will never stop loving him."

A week before the home-invasion robbery on Aug. 17, 1983, Barrios, then 21, planned the crime with two younger co-defendants, according to prosecutors.

Barrios and the co-defendants forced their way into the Schafer home after cutting the telephone wire outside to prevent the victims from calling the police, and put stockings and masks over their faces to hide their identities, according to the news release.

Both women had socks stuffed into their mouths and were placed face down on a bed. Barrios' job was to watch over the women while Francisco Ulloa and Oscar Torres, both 17, ransacked the house.

The three friends fled the scene with only $75, leaving the victims to slowly suffocate. Robert Schafer, Elizabeth Schafer's son, discovered the bodies the next morning when he went over to the house to make breakfast for his mother and sister.

Barrios, Ulloa and Torres were linked to the crime through friends who went to the police. Ulloa and Torres were convicted and sent to the California Youth Authority until age 25, according to a defense attorney quoted at the time in the Orange County Register.

Because Torres and Ulloa were younger than 18 at the time of the murders, Barrios was the only defendant who faced the death penalty for the crime. But an appeal court ruled the D.A.'s office could not seek the death penalty against him because the murders were unintentional.

Prosecutors believed that Barrios and the other two did not think gagging the women would kill them.

Barrios told investigators that the $75 was "a little party money," according to a story on his sentencing that appeared in the Register.

At that 1986 hearing, Barrios told Superior Court Judge James Smith: "I'm sorry I hurt those people. I lost myself for a time in my life. I would just like to get my life back together again."

Smith noted that Barrios had an impressive high school scholastic record and that his family was a "pillar of the community."

The said noted that if the tragic events of Aug. 17, 1983 had never happened, Barrios could have been a role model for "all our sons and daughters."

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